Cotswolds Dry Gin 750mL

Greetings folks, it looks like someone actually had the gall to send us something to review even after we laid out our terms. On the one hand it’s highly unlikely they were expecting or wanting a 6.5 level score as that’d be the death knell on most sites. As hopefully faithful readers of this site know though – that extra 1.5 from average was well fought and won.

Now it would be easy and enjoyable for us to totally hate on a gin someone sent for free. Sadly that’s not too easy here. Overall they wax a little too much poetical on the little tag, and the cost is too much compared to others of this level (typically about 33 dollars or so looking at Hendricks, Uncle Val’s, or Aviation). That being said when it comes to mixing this gin, it does arguably the best job in it’s tier. (but we we review all aspects sadly for them)

What they Say: “Our Cotswolds Dry Gin has been hand-crafted in small batches to create a smooth London dry style gin with a Cotswolds twist. We combine our unique botanical mix and purest wheat spirit in our handmade Holstein copper pot still and allow for a long maceration and slow distillation, resulting in a beautifully balanced gin of the finest quality.”

Tag: “Our Cotswolds Dry Gin is a delectable blend of Nine carefully-considered botanicals. The expression of the traditional London dry style comes from the maceration into our pure wheat spirit of juniper, coriander and angelica root which have been left for 24 hours to allow their flavour characteristics to fully infuse. The result is a classic well-balanced juniper-led gin with crisp citrus and spice.

PALATE: Clean, pine spice from the juniper followed by fresh grapefruit and coriander seed. Black pepper spice builds with a touch of dryness from the angelica root. Light mineral and eucalyptus notes from the bay leaf before notes of lime and lavender.

FINISH: Clean and balanced. Juniper, citrus and cooling notes from the bay leaf and cardamom”

Taste: 7.25– It has a very nice sort of natural sweetness to it that isn’t sugary at all. It is quite good though.

Aftertaste: 6.5 – The aftertaste can be broken into 2 parts, the first is sort of a slow juniper taste, but it’s followed less by a taste and more a sensation in your throat. It is overall pleasant, but not stellar.

Burn/Smooth: 5.75 – Does have that twinge of burn, but in part due to the aftertaste (mouth feel?) this isn’t smooth or clean.

Aroma: 7.25 – Juniper forward, but it does have a mango tropical fruit kinda vibe to it.

Honesty: 6.5 – The bottle is on point and the exact kind of look they should go for. That being said their text is a little too self-serving (and we are not including the brochure that came with it). Most of this though isn’t even the bottle but the little tag often included with bottles. The other major problem is a “Spirits Gold Medal” sticker on the bottle. Sorry but we believe in word-of-mouth and real people not some fancy competition. They therefore lose many points that they gained by wanting to be reviewed by us.

Editor’s Note: We are making changes to the Manliness metric to be Honesty, post to explain on Oct 1st 2017, but overall not much has changed.

Mixability: 7.875

Martini: 8.0 – Just that bit of time on ice, the lone olive, and the standard (not Churchill) amount of vermouth – works, and it works well.

Gin and Tonic: 7.75 – Now, make sure you are heavy in your pours as standard this falters a bit. If you get the ratio right thought, this makes a fantastic G&T.

Editor’s Note: They have a suggested cocktail of The Gin Faisan which required grapefruit juice and regular soda water, and we may add that in the future.

Value: 4.0 – You are certainly paying for a premium gin, and overall it sort of deserves that subpar value score.

Final Thoughts: As far as the reviewer scores go there is certainly some bias here (our biggest complaint is price, and we got it pro bono). While certain parts of it work well, and some don’t – those cocktails. If however you find this nicely on sale, or in your local watering hole for the same cost in a beverage – you’d be well off trying it. As far as we’re concerned though we’re glad we were given something that wasn’t awful (looking at you Captain Morgan Pumpkin)